@Penn95 I guess we will never really know but I just don't buy the theory that they are trying to limit the number of ED applications. There are less convoluted and more effective ways of doing that. Maybe, I am a cynic but I feel that nowadays almost every move these schools (not just Penn) make is either aimed at increasing the number of applications, decreasing their admit rate, increasing their yield or lowering their cost of providing financial aid.

@penn95@hebegebe That link on change in prestige of Chicago is another reason Penn would never try to lower the number of ED apps. Chicago played the contrarian game for decades with all kinds of weird decisions ( not investing in engineering, ignoring undergraduate studies, not paying close attention to finances and fund raising, alienating it's feeder high schools etc etc) superbly confident that none of that would really hurt it's superb reputation or prestige. They paid a heavy price for that. In the fast changing world of higher education making one single bad contrarian move could dethrone you from your perch for decades. No school is willing to risk that now, specially under the harsh light of yearly rankings.

Penn was criticized for accepting over half their class during the ED round for the last few years. They may be planning to take less this year. I highly doubt they are worried about the few students who break the ED contract. Penn will probably make some sort of announcement about this new policy - most students/guidance counselors haven't even heard about it yet.I'm wondering if the common app is going to enforce it - like they do if someone tries to apply to two schools ED. Will the common app be able to prevent an EA application from a Penn ED applicant? (Not that I'm suggesting students ignore the policy - I"m absolutely not advocating that - just wondering how it will be enforced.

I don't think they are explicitly trying to reduce the ED pool, but rather make sure people who apply ED are 110% committed to Penn. I believe they are gonna keep accepting 50-55% of the class ed but now they will have weeded out the few people are don't have penn as their absolute first choice. It still seems petty to me that they would do that but who knows. I think the number of ED apps will go a bit down as a result, but i am willing to bet it won't be by more than a few hundred apps, if that. I guess we need to wait and see.

Maybe Penn is trying to increase yield even more and thus reduce acceptance rate.

Penn is at a disadvantage when it comes to acceptance rate due to its considerably larger class size than Chicago, Columbia, Duke, HYPSM . When yield was factored into the rankings Penn was able to be in the top 5, but since usnews stopped using it, Penn has been relegated to the lower half of the top 5. Also it is part of Penn's identity to admit more well-rounded people or people with amazing ECs (company founders, charities etc) who might have competitive but not amazing SATs which then results in lower average SATs, which is similar to Stanford s philosophy. I don't think Penn is willing to sacrifice that by admitting more of the bookish, nerdy high SAT kids at the expense of what it thinks are more interesting people, so maybe it is looking for ways to improve its ranking through lowering acceptance rate.

And I can't say I blame them, I don't see any legitimate reason why Penn should be ranked lower than Columbia or Chicago. This year Penn ranked #9, the first time it has held a position that low in almost 20 years, so it might have been a wake-up call to action. This isn't a reflection of deterrioration in quality or any other issue, Penn has been going from strength to strength in all areas. It is just that the ranking criteria don't favor Penn as much so i guess they feel that some changes needs to be made. StillI don't see how this new policy will have a meaningful impact on the acceptance rate though.

I think what Penn needs to do is lower the class size by 400-500 people and they should be fine. Not just to make the acceptance rate more competitive, but just in general I think Penn is slightly too big for an ivy, a class size of 1900-2000 would be ideal.

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